34 Celebrities With High IQ

Who are the most famous people with a high IQ?

Introduction

IQ, or intelligence quotient, is a measure of your ability to reason and solve problems.

IQ also predicts how people will do their job, even in non-academic professions such as being a carpenter or car mechanic.

According to Stuart Ritchie, a Scottish psychologist known for his research in human intelligence, there is a massive amount of data showing that IQ is one of the best predictors of someone’s prosperity, health, and longevity.

According to the Stanford-Binet scale, IQ is classified as follows:

• under 70 – feeble-mindedness;
• 70 – 79 – borderline deficiency in intelligence;
• 80 – 89 – dullness;
• 90 – 109 – average or normal intelligence;
• 110 – 119 – superior intelligence;
• 120 – 140 – very superior intelligence;
• over 140 – genius or almost genius.

List Of 33 Celebrities With High IQ

#1 Natalie Portman – 140 IQ

In 2003, Natalie graduated from Harvard University with an A.B. in Psychology.

Portman can speak German, French, Spanish, Hebrew, and English fluently.

In the 1990s, the actress was a semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search, a program of the Society for Science & the Public.

Portman also co-authored 2 technical research papers in neuroscience, which were published in reputable journals.

“Frontal Lobe Activation during Object Permanence,” published in NeuroImage in 2002 under her birth name, Natalie Hershlag, with Harvard psychologists Abigail Baird and Jerome Kagan as co-authors (PubMed entry). The study used near-infrared light to measure frontal lobe activity in babies when a toy vanished under a cloth.

Harvard intimidated her. At Class Day in 2015 she said she had worried:

“I wasn’t smart enough to be in this company.”

#2 Arnold Schwarzenegger – 132 IQ

Schwarzenegger, nicknamed “the Austrian Oak,” is reported to have an IQ of 132.

At school, Arnold was reportedly academically average; however, he had a good-humored and exuberant character.

Schwarzenegger has starred in numerous blockbuster films, served as Governor of California from 2003 to 2011, and founded several successful businesses.

His achievements demonstrate that he possesses a high level of intelligence and problem-solving skills.

#3 Kesha – 140 IQ

According to reports, Kesha has an IQ of around 140.

She attained a near-perfect score on her SATs.

Later, Kesha was accepted to Barnard College but dropped out after 3 months to pursue her music career.

#4 Sharon Stone – 154 IQ

The actress is widely reputed to have an IQ of around 154. Sharon was considered academically gifted as a child and entered the 2nd grade when she was five years old.

#5 Nicole Kidman – 132 IQ

The Australian-American actress reportedly has an IQ of 132.

#6 Ashton Kutcher – 160 IQ

According to reports, Ashton Kutcher has an IQ of 160.

He had scholarships to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) or Purdue but lost them after he was convicted of 3rd-degree burglary and sentenced to 180 hours of community service and three years of probation.

The actor once said:

”The sexiest thing in the entire world is being really smart.”

#7 James Woods – 157 IQ

Woods said that he has an IQ of 180, but he scored 1579 on SAT, which puts him at an IQ of 157, according to this source.

He dropped out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1969, one semester prior to graduating, to pursue a career in acting. At some point, he intended to follow a career as an eye surgeon.

MIT lists him as class of 1969, and Woods has said he scored 800 on the verbal SAT and about 780 on math.

#8 Lisa Kudrow – 154 IQ

Kudrow received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from Vassar College, intending to become an expert on headaches like her physician’s dad.

She even earned a research credit on her father’s study on the comparative likelihood of left-handed individuals developing cluster headaches. About 8 years later, she received her first role.

#9 Conan O’Brien – 160 IQ

O’Brien’s IQ score is 160. Conan graduated from high school as valedictorian in 1981. In his senior year, O’Brien won the National Council of Teachers of English writing contest.

After high school, he went to Harvard, from where he graduated magna cum laude in History & Literature.

#10 Brian May – 170 IQ

May has an estimated IQ of 170. At Hampton Grammar School, he attained ten GCE Ordinary Levels and three GCE Advanced Levels in Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, and Physics.

In 2007, Brian was awarded a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Imperial College London.

He started that thesis in 1971 and handed it in 36 years later, in August 2007: “Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud,” about 48,000 words that show zodiacal dust orbits in the same direction as the planets. Why go back at 60?

“I wanted the real thing that I worked for,” he said to the BBC, after he ruled out an honorary degree, NPR relayed in 2007.

#11 Quentin Tarantino – 160 IQ

Tarantino has an IQ of 160; however, Quentin had said he’d never been tested. At age 15, the American filmmaker dropped out of Narbonne High School in Harbor City, LA.

#12 Geena Davis – 140 IQ

Davis is an American actress and activist who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in drama from Boston University in 1979. Geena received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The Accidental Tourist. Her IQ is around 140.

#13 Cindy Crawford – 154 IQ

Crawford graduated from DeKalb High School in 1984 as valedictorian. After high school, she studied chemical engineering on scholarship at Northwestern University.

#14 Kevin Spacey – 137

Spacey is an American actor who earned an Academy Award for Best Actor for the drama American Beauty and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the thriller The Usual Suspects.

#15 Dr. Mehmet Oz – 158 IQ

Dr. Oz is a Columbia University professor, cardiothoracic surgeon, and television personality. He received his undergraduate degree in biology at Harvard University in 1982.

In 1986, Dr. Oz obtained MBA and MD degrees, respectively, at Penn’s Wharton School and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Since April 3, 2025, he has a new job title: administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, confirmed by the Senate on 53-45 party-line vote.

#16 David Duchovny – 147 IQ

The American actor earned an A.B. in English literature from Princeton University and an M.A. in English literature from Yale University.

Moreover, David has published three books – Miss Subways, Bucky F###ing Dent, and Holy Cow: A Modern-Day Dairy Tale.

#17 Masi Oka – 189 IQ

Oka is an American actor who rose to prominence for his role on NBC’s Heroes as Hiro Nakamura. In 1997, he graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and mathematics.

During the 1992 Summer Olympics, Masi worked as a Spanish, English, and Japanese translator.

#18 Edward Norton – 134 IQ

Norton is an American actor who received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance as a reformed neo-Nazi in American History X.

Edward attended Yale College, where he earned a BA in History. Also, he worked as an analyst for an entrepreneurial nonprofit.

#19 Emma Watson – 138 IQ

Watson is an English actress who rose to fame with her first professional acting role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series.

On May 25, 2014, Emma graduated from Brown University with a bachelor’s degree in English literature.

She went back to Oxford in September 2023 for a master’s course in creative writing, The Oxford Student reported. It was her second stint there, after a 2011-12 year at Worcester College as an exchange student of Brown.

#20 James Franco – 130 IQ

He has an estimated IQ of 130. Franco dropped out of school in his first year at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to pursue a career as an actor.

That dropout story has a second act. Franco re-enrolled at UCLA in 2006 and got his B.A. in English in June 2008, the university says, with a departmental honors thesis under novelist Mona Simpson.

“I wasn’t going back to school just to get by […],” he told UCLA Magazine.

#21 Meryl Streep – 143 IQ

Streep is an American actress who was nominated for a record 21 Academy Awards (won three).

Meryl studied drama at Yale University, where the actress earned a master of fine arts degree in 1975.

#22 Alicia Keys – 154 IQ

Keys is an American musician who was composing songs by the age of 12.

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#23 Ken Jeong – 130 IQ

Jeong is an American stand-up comedian who obtained his M.D. at the UNC School of Medicine in 1995.

In addition, Ken Jeong completed his residency in internal medicine at the Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.

#24 Tommy Lee Jones – 135 IQ

Jones has won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive.

In 1969, Tommy graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in English from Harvard College.

#25 Dolph Lundgren – 160 IQ

In 1980, Dolph received a degree in chemical engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology.

In 1982, Lundgren earned a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney.

Next stop was supposed to be MIT, on a Fulbright scholarship in 1983.

He made the trip from New York to Cambridge on a motorcycle with Grace Jones and walked away from the place. “I just knew it wasn’t right,” Lundgren told NPR in 2014.

#26 Jodie Foster – 132 IQ

Foster has received the Cecil B. DeMille Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, and two Academy Awards.

In 1985, she graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s in Literature from Yale University.

In 1997, Yale University conferred her an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree.

#27 Colin Firth – 153 IQ

He has been credited as one of four co-authors of a 2011 academic paper into human brains. The paper has been published in the journal Current Biology.

Interestingly, Firth said in an interview:

“I didn’t like school. I just thought it was boring and mediocre and nothing they taught me seemed to be of any interest at all.”

“Political Orientations Are Correlated with Brain Structure in Young Adults” ran in Current Biology in April 2011, with Firth credited next to UCL neuroscientists Ryota Kanai and Geraint Rees. The idea came from his stint as guest editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today program.

#28 Jordana Brewster – 130 IQ

Brewster is a Panamanian-American actress and model. In 2003, she graduated from Yale University with a B. A. in English.

During an interview with People, Brewster said:

“When you have to play a little bit dumb or innocent, that can be challenging. I love Tina Fey because she does both.”

Jordana went on to say:

“On 30 Rock, she’s smart and a bit of a mess. We all relate to that.”

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#29 Hillary Clinton – 140 IQ

Clinton attended Wellesley College and Yale Law School.

#30 Matt Damon – 160 IQ

Matt Damon attended Harvard University.

In 2013, the American actor was awarded the Harvard Arts Meda. He wrote the script for Good Will Hunting as a project for a college English class.

Matt has been nominated for six Emmy Awards and two British Academy Film Awards. In 1988, he received an Academy Award for the screenplay of Good Will Hunting.

#31 Mayim Bialik – 150 IQ

Mayim Bialik is an American actress who starred as neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler on The Big Bang Theory.

Bialik holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA. Her dissertation was an investigation of hypothalamic activity in patients with Prader–Willi syndrome.

She finished that PhD at UCLA, where she had earned her bachelor’s in neuroscience in 2000. “It was exciting to get my Ph.D. in 2007,” she told Neil deGrasse Tyson for National Geographic.

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#32 Steve Martin – 142 IQ

American actor Steve Martin has an IQ estimated to be about 142. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Steve at 6th place in a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics.

Note – a number of studies have found an association between humor and a higher IQ.

#33 Ben Stein – 150 IQ

Ben graduated as valedictorian from Yale Law School in June 1970.

Stein worked as a professor of law and economics at Pepperdine University and the University of California–Santa Cruz, a speechwriter for Presidents Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon, a trade regulation lawyer for the Federal Trade Commission, and a poverty lawyer.

#34 Magnus Carlsen – 160 IQ

Born on November 30, 1990, in Tønsberg, Norway, Carlsen is one of the most successful chess players in history.

Magnus earned his Grandmaster title at just 13 years old and became World Chess Champion in 2013.

In July 2022 he told his sponsor’s podcast “I’m not motivated to play another match”.

Here’s a quick recap of famous people and celebrity IQ Scores:

1. Natalie Portman – 140 IQ
2. Arnold Schwarzenegger – 132 IQ
3. Kesha – 140 IQ
4. Sharon Stone – 154 IQ
5. Nicole Kidman – 132 IQ
6. Ashton Kutcher – 160 IQ
7. James Woods – 157 IQ
8. Lisa Kudrow – 154 IQ
9. Conan O’Brien – 160 IQ
10. Brian May – 170 IQ
11. Quentin Tarantino – 160 IQ
12. Geena Davis – 140 IQ
13. Cindy Crawford – 154 IQ
14. Kevin Spacey – 137
15. Dr. Mehmet Oz – 158 IQ
16. David Duchovny – 147 IQ
17. Masi Oka – 189 IQ
18. Edward Norton – 134 IQ
19. Emma Watson – 138 IQ
20. James Franco – 130 IQ
21. Meryl Streep – 143 IQ
22. Alicia Keys – 154 IQ
23. Ken Jeong – 130 IQ
24. Tommy Lee Jones – 135 IQ
25. Dolph Lundgren – 160 IQ
26. Jodie Foster – 132 IQ
27. Colin Firth – 153 IQ
28. Jordana Brewster – 130 IQ
29. Hillary Clinton – 140 IQ
30. Matt Damon – 160 IQ
31. Mayim Bialik – 150 IQ
32. Steve Martin – 142 IQ
33. Ben Stein – 150 IQ
34. Magnus Carlsen – 160 IQ

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